hobo dinner

The hobo is a very simple yet filling meal that can be prepared when you're doing some car camping. There are two main parts to making a successful hobo: getting a fire going and making the thing itself. This node doesn't focus on how to build a fire. You should figure that out first. The hobo is cheap, tasty, and quite filling. Cleanup is simple too since everything's encased in aluminum foil.

Shape the foil into a cup around the chicken breast. Next, add chunks of potato, carrot, onion, and whatever else is handy. Your only real limitation is what sounds good to you, and the ability to close up the foil packet when you're done.

Next, add about 3 tbs of chicken broth to each packet. Then season. Salt and pepper is good. I use Cavender's greek seasoning...you can get the same effect by adding some garlic salt and celery salt to the salt and pepper.

You will, of course, grind your pepper fresh. Or we'll send Lometa out to beat sense into you.

The thing to remember here is that when you close this up and bake it, because of the enclosed nature of the packets and the surrounding juices, the spices are going to completely suffuse the chicken and vegetables. The resulting flavor can be quite intense, depending on what you used for seasoning. Choose appropriately.

Set the oven to 400 F, wrap up the packets, put them together in the pan or dish, and put them in the oven for an hour.

Because it's enclosed, the steam and fluid can't really escape, so overcooking this only makes it fall apart easier...it won't dry it out.

Unwrap carefully and devour. Depending on the veggies you pick to accompany the chicken breast, this is a fairly healthy dinner, and easily done to boot...it can be a nice meal to start your kids off with, or college students, or anybody else who is just learning to cook.

Note: If you only bake it for half an hour, this will be long enough to cook the chicken, but it will not cook the vegetables enough for them to be soft.